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Chris Hadfield, 53, made the announcement in told a press conference in Montreal yesterday, saying that it was time to step aside to give a younger generation of astronauts their shot at a space flight.

“There are so many young astronauts on the programme,” he said. “I would be an obstacle to them.”

Needless to say, he also took to Twitter to speak to his followers, who now number more than a million. “To say goodbye to these good people today was much harder than I expected,” he wrote in a message that included a picture of himself standing in